Whenever I think I’ve seen a twisted hand—BAM!—another more twisted one shows up. On my recent trip to Caesars, I saw two of the sickest hands I've seen in a while. The first took place in the WSOP Circuit Event and was an amazing (maybe crazy) call; the second took place in a 5/10 cash game and, as you'll see, was a somewhat easier one.

Hand 1

With the blinds at 100/200 in the WSOP circuit event, a young man named Brandon raised to 700 from middle position; he was sitting with 20,000 behind. Chris McCormack called from the BB; figure he had 13,000 or so in his stack.

The flop came 10 5 3. Chris checked. Brandon bet 1,200 and Chris called. Turn was the J, and Chris checked again. Brandon bet 2,400. Chris thought for about 20 seconds and called. River card was the 2. Chris checked again and Brando fired another 4,500 at the pot. At this point, Chris tanked for about 2 minutes, emerged, counted out 4,500 in chips and called with an A3…4th pair! Brandon tabled 96—9 high, no good!

I was sitting next to Brandon and he commented to me that he shouldn’t have bet the river. He said that after he made the turn bet, Chris made eye contact with him and he felt Chris knew he didn’t have anything. Later, I asked Chris what he was thinking when he made the call on the river. He shrugged and said that if Brandon flips up QQ, he looks like an idiot. Good point—in poker, the line between genius and idiot is very fine. This willingness to make a tough call for a big chunk of chips when your gut says you are ahead is a common characteristic of great tournament players. And I can confirm that NO ONE at our table tried to bluff Chris out of a pot the rest of the day.


Hand 2

The other stunner I witnessed was in the Caesar's 5/10 NL cash game. I'd been sitting in the game for several hours when Kenna James showed up and took a seat to my right. He'd been sitting for 15 minutes when the following hand came up.

An Asian kid who'd been playing or raising every pot like Bruce Lee on meth limped UTG for $10. There was another limper and then Kenna popped it to $60. Kenna had watched this kid playing pot after pot and I’m guessing he decided it was time to play sheriff. In any event, I folded, and it was folded back to Bruce Lee who rejected Kenna’s aspirations and repopped to $230. The other limper folded and Kenna called. Ok, we’ve got action.

Flop came QQ6 and Asian kid checks to Kenna, who bet $260 into the $470-ish pot. Asian kid called.

Turn was a blank 3. Check. Check. Come on, fellas. This is boooooring.

The river card was a deuce and the chips started flying. Asian kid bet out $300 into the $1000 pot and Kenna SHOVED for his last $1400 or so. Asian kid insta-calls and Kenna flipped over 45s for the rivered straight. Ha! But then Asian kid turns over a frigging HAREM—QUAD queens—and scooped the $4,000 pot. Whoa! Everyone at the table was stunned but none more so than Kenna.

You really can’t fault Kenna for his push on the river. But calling a big re-raise before the flop with 45s can obviously get you in big trouble. At the same time, this willingness to gamble helps get Kenna action when he makes a big hand. Apparently, it's not so good for the appetite, though. He immediately stood up and bolted from the table leaving a bag of food he’d just purchased from the food court. Anybody want some buffalo wings?

God help me, I love this game!

PianoMan

You can read more about Caesars poker room including my recent trip report and review here...

Caesars Palace listing

I spent five days at Caesars Palace for the WSOP Circuit Event and thoroughly enjoyed my time in their poker room. The room is very well appointed, and the staff is professional and accommodating.

It is a good idea to get a Harrah’s Reward Card before beginning play. You swipe in when you enter the room and get points for time played. This can be exchanged for food and other perks. The points are good at any Harrah’s property. Don’t forget to swipe out when you leave. At 5 am the computer resets and you lose your time.

I played in the 2/5 and 5/10 no limit games. There are small minimum buy-ins and no cap. The liveliest games start around 10:00 – 11:00 pm and go throughout the night. The 2/5 game was the juiciest because every so often a couple of tourists would sit down with $300-$400 to test their mettle. This usually lasted about an hour until their money ran out. The regulars are a pretty fair bunch of players although as the night wore on, some drank a little too much and got sloppy. The 5/10 game was tougher (as it always is), but definitely beatable with solid, tight aggressive play. I’d recommend having at least $1000 on the table in the 2/5 game with another $1000 behind, and double that for the 5/10. This way you won’t get pushed around by the regulars. There are a wide variety of other games available.

There are many tournaments throughout the week, but all of them were cancelled because the Circuit Event was scheduled. Locals tell me all the tournaments are well attended.

There is a poker room hotel rate of $139. You receive this rate by putting in 8 hours of playing time each day. The rooms are very nice, and at this rate, a real bargain. For an $80 up-charge, you can stay in the Augustus Tower with rooms the size of a small condo. I would be sure you get your room rate in advance from the poker room. At check out, I had trouble dealing with the front desk to get my rate adjusted. After about 25 minutes of arguing, they finally gave me the correct rate.

One excellent place to eat is the Augustus Café near the Augustus Tower. Their breakfasts are to die for. The fresh fruit is superb, and if you ask nicely, the chef will add some blueberries to your pancakes – a real treat. On the negative side, I’d avoid the food court. It takes 20 minutes to get anything, and the food is not particularly good. The ordering process is very disorganized.

Caesars Palace is right next door to Bellagio. So if you can’t find what you want here, you can take a short walk to Las Vegas poker paradise. I’d recommend Caesars Palace as an excellent place to stay and play.

I recently played the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas ($5,000 buy-in Main Event) and ran into two hands that have started me thinking about possibly changing my tournament style. As a general rule, I tend to be a tight, aggressive player. I’m a consistent winner in cash games (5/10 NL and up) and have made it deep in several major events. My tournament play has tended to mirror my cash game play—heavy emphasis on finding very advantageous spots to get my money in. Unfortunately, I often find myself waiting for a better spot and then scrambling to stay ahead of the blinds. As a result, I’m wondering if I should adopt more of a gambling style in my tournament play.

In any event, here’s what’s been keeping me up the last couple of nights. The first two levels were uneventful; I was card dead at a very active table and had been whittled down to about 8,500. At Level 3 (blinds 100/200/no ante) though, I had some decisions to make.


Hand 1

In the first hand, I was in the big blind. The cutoff seat, a young, aggressive player from the East Coast, was the chip leader at the table (about 28,000 chips) and opening any pot folded to him. He had recently busted one player when he flopped the nut flush and enjoyed the pleasure of an overplayed pair of queens.

In any event, he opened here for 700. The button, an Asian player with almost as many chips as East Coast, was consistently calling his raises with any two cards and did so here. The small blind was a young player named Brandon, a friend of WPT champion Joe Bartholdi, who appeared to be a thoughtful and aggressive player. Brandon had about 13,000 and made it 4,200 to go. I looked down in the BB and found J J.

At this point, the pot stood at about 6,000. My stack, again, was 8,500. Ok, call, push or fold?

I knew I didn’t want to call since…

1) Calling would likely encourage the big stacks, East Coast and Asian guy, to hang around with any kind of hand. The last thing I wanted here was four way action with hooks.

2) I would probably be faced with a tough decision post-flop, out of position. There’s a 60% chance cards bigger than a jack are hitting the flop. I hate tough post-flop decisions, out of position.

3) If I called, half my stack would be in the pot and I’d be pretty much pot committed.

4) There’s no fold equity in calling.

My alternatives, therefore, were to move-in or fold.

If I moved in, I was really only worried about Brandon. East Coast and Asian guy were playing a wide range of hands and my image was very tight (a nifty by-product of three hours of folding 62o, 74o, A2o et al.). Unless one of them held a monster, they were gone.

This left $1400 of dead money in the pot and Brandon to think through.

I’m obviously not happy if Brandon has AA, KK, or QQ, but I discounted AA and KK pretty quickly. Why would he make such a large bet if he had AA or KK? His bet was discouraging action.

So if he did have a big pair, it was probably QQ, but given the bet size, I felt his most likely holding was AK, in which case, I am a slight favorite to win the hand and double up. This would give me a nice chip stack early and room to maneuver.

I also might have some fold equity, although the size of Brandon’s bet suggested he was playing this pot.

So it really came down to the following decision: Did I want to play a huge pot here for a coin flip when I still have 40x the big blind and consider myself to be one of the better players at the table?

In the end, I decided “No.” although in retrospect, I think there’s merit in pushing here. At some point, in any tournament, I need to win some coin flips. And although I consider myself a solid 2x favorite in tournament play, I rarely like turning down edges; JJ is a 55/45 favorite and there was 1400 of dead money in that pot. If I had to do it over, I think I’d…well…who knows?

Side note: Brandon did not show his cards but later told me he had AK and would have called my all-in.


Hand 2

The second hand came about 15 minutes after the JJ hand.

Chris McCormack, a thoughtful, courageous player with good table sense, had recently been seated four seats to my left and raised to 600 from UTG+2. He had about 20,000 chips. An amateur with about 6,000 chips called the 600 from middle position.

It was folded to me on the button (my stack stood at about 7,400 at this point) and I called with 6 6. The blinds folded, leaving the pot at roughly 2,100.

The flop came 4 5 7.

Chris checked, Amateur checked, and I considered my options.

I could take a card off and see if I make my straight. However, if I did hit, with a four card straight on the board, I would probably get little action. And if my straight card was a spade, it might someone else’s flush. Plus, other than my straight cards, there are very few cards I’d like to see on the turn. I felt my best choice was to bet 1,800 and try to take the pot down. Unfortunately, Chris check raised enough to put me all-in. Amateur folded after some thought, and hence, tough decision #2.

At this point, I’ve got about 5,000 chips left and I’m getting about 2:1 odds on my money (figure about 10,000 or so in the pot at this point) if I call. Most likely, Chris has an over-pair. I probably have 10 outs (8 outs to my straight and the other 2 sixes) which makes me slightly better than a 2:1 underdog to win. He may also have two unpaired over-cards and, knowing that I have been playing tight, is trying to push me off the better hand. If the two over-cards are spades, he’s a slight favorite. If not, I am a big favorite.

I concluded that I was likely calling off my entire stack drawing as a 2:1 underdog and with 25X the blinds figured I’d find a better spot and folded.

Looking back, I think the check raise was a great bet by Chris. Whatever he had, it was the best way to win the pot. In retrospect, I think I needed to give more weight to the fact that Chris might be playing AK or AQ of spades. This is a classic young gun semi bluff move. Chris gets 50% or more fold equity and he is a slight favorite to win against a hand like mine.


Conclusion

As it turned out, the JJ was the best starting hand I had the entire day. I never had another pair over 44, and no AK or AQ through the next three levels. I managed to grind my way into the 6th level (300/600/75 ante) by stealing with nothing, but bounced out in 140th with my J 10 v A J.

As I look back, I’m not one to play results, but I do think that I need to rethink spots like the ones above and consider the merits of gambling to build a stack. At some point, I’ll need to win flips and gamble a little. And let’s face it…playing with a big stack is a lot more fun than grinding along as a shorty. I think I’m going to practice taking more risks early in some local tournaments and see if I can find a rhythm with it.

Keep practicing!

PianoMan